Huge thanks to the staff and customers of our local co-op who raised a total of £2783.64 for our hounds over the last year. We were delighted to receive your cheque this weekend. The money will make a huge difference to our kennel.

Two of our volunteers took kennel favourites Zara and Yara to the presentation. As you can see, their mince pie radars are in full working order! A good time was had by all and we are very grateful for your generosity.

We’d like to say a big thank you to the team at Hill’s pet food for their donation of a whole pallet of kibble. The hounds are all really enjoying it and are now even more excited for dinner time! Kennel favourite, Patch, even ran through his entire repertoire of party tricks in the hopes of getting seconds! Here he is (on the left) putting an end to the myth that greyhounds can’t sit. Meanwhile, Cash (on the right) has worked out that there’s more where that came from in the big bag!

Both our boys are still looking for their forever sofas and would love to have some visitors. Why not come and see them next time you’re in the area? Cash loves meeting new people and Patch would be only too pleased to show off his latest moves!

Dunrunnin had a great day out visiting Mount Mascal's fun day over the bank holiday weekend. Humans and dogs alike enjoyed meeting new people and basking in the summer sun.

Some of our volunteer team escaped the kennels for the day and made the most of the holiday sunshine. In between all the sunbathing and eating of candy floss, we got to chat to lots of potential greyhound owners and a few familiar faces too!

The dogs had an even better time than the humans. There were lots of new sights to see, smells to sniff and so many friends to make!

We even found time to enter into the dog show and we're super proud of Dilly who was judged runner-up Best in Show! Here's the champion herself, cooling off and basking in her success. It's her very first outing with us and she did extraordinarily well, so we're expecting great things from her.

Thanks so much to everyone who came along to support us, and to our volunteers for making the day such a success. We're looking forward to a repeat performance!

We are all saddened by the recent passing of Pearl, a much-loved member of the Dunrunnin family.

After a long and distinguished racing career, Pearl joined us last year and was quickly adopted by two of our regular volunteers, John and Lesley. She then went on to pass her Pets as Therapy qualification with flying colours. As a certified therapy dog, her calm nature and gentle disposition brought comfort and support to many people in their time of need. She represented the Greyhound Trust at national events and was a regular fixture in our tea hut.

Pearl was an outstanding dog who has left a lasting impression in the hearts of so many. We will all miss her very much.

A big thank you to Bovis Homes, who raised a fantastic £128.08 with their charity cake sale last week, not to mention bags and bags of toys, treats and other assorted goodies for our hounds. We are all very grateful for your support and the dogs really enjoy their new tea hut toys!

Now that Glen has left, we decided to put Buddy in charge of quality-testing all the new treats and toys. You'll be glad to hear that they all met with his approval and more! Here he is with his snazzy new collar giving you all a big thank you grin!

There's no better time for a doggy makeover than the summertime! Our greyhounds at the kennels have all been getting ready for the hot weather (!) by shedding their winter coats. Poor Karen has lost count of the number of times she's had to sweep out the tea hut! Now they're all looking very glamorous, sunbathing in the yard in their sleek summer coats.

Of course, a glamorous dog needs a glamorous collar and it just so happens that we have some for sale! A very lovely and talented friend of ours has handmade a selection of martingale collars just for us. These collars are exclusive to Dunrunnin and -- as they're handmade -- each one is unique. We are offering them for sale at the bargain price of £12.50 each, with a portion of each sale going to our kennel. These collars are only available to friends of our kennel; you won't find them anywhere else.

In addition to our collars, we also have matching bandanas for sale at £8 each.

If you'd like to buy one (or several), please send us an email with your name and which design(s) you'd like. To keep things simple, we won't be posting them out, so you'll have to drop in for tea to pick them up -- please bring cash with you. These are super-limited edition and once they're gone, they're gone. Be quick and snag yours before our stocks run out!

Skull and Crossbones

Black Skulls and Roses

Allsorts

Yellow Skulls and Roses

As many of you will know, we have been saving up for a long time so that we could refurbish our old, dilapidated paddocks.

For those who have never visited, paddocks take up most of our yard space and are the first thing you see when you come in to the kennel. They are fenced-off, outdoor areas where we let the dogs out for some fresh air and exercise.

Because they were very old, the concrete slabs which made up the floor had worn very smooth -- so smooth that the dogs weren't able to play without slipping over! Together with the uneven ground and an old, neglected tree stump, this made our yard pretty hazardous for hounds and humans alike.

Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we hit our fundraising target and got the builders in immediately!

It was a stressful fortnight while work was carried out, but we are all delighted with the result. The new surface is lovely and even, and no longer acts like a skating rink when it rains. Best of all, the dogs are finally able to have a proper game outside. We love watching them playing together and having fun.

We'd like to say a huge thank you to all of our supporters, including the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, Support Adoption for Pets and our local Co-op, without whom this would never have been possible. This has already made such a positive impact on our dogs' quality of life and will continue to do so for years to come. Just look how happy Kenny is on the left there!

And before you go, take a minute to enjoy this video of Jed and River enjoying their first time out in their new outdoor space. It's guaranteed to brighten your day!

Here at Dunrunnin, we rely on our small army of volunteers to keep the day-to-day running of the kennels on track. Because we value their contributions so much, we like to ply them with cakes and biscuits to make sure they don't waste away before each of our dogs has had their daily walk. Some might say that we're engaging in a thinly veiled form of sugar-based bribery, but we beg to differ. It's just not possible to walk over thirty dogs without opening a single packet of custard creams.

Therefore, we're hugely proud of our volunteer, Lou, who ran the Blackheath 5k at the weekend to raise money for Cancer Research - and all without a single jammy dodger in sight! We were slightly concerned for her welfare, though, so we sent along Kenny to make sure she didn't get into too much trouble.

Unlike our other hounds, Kenny isn't an ex-racer, but he caught on quickly and was soon having the time of his life. He has more energy than our greyhounds, so he loved the opportunity to get out and give his legs a proper stretch. And he even found time to make friends with some passing policemen.

We're so pleased with the way Kenny has come on since he came to us having been abandoned by the side of the road. We suspect that he'd never walked on a lead in his former life and at first he was understandably shaken by his experiences. He's now a happy, friendly boy and a proud Dunrunnin ambassador who is looking for his forever home.

Could you be Kenny's permanent jogging partner? Perhaps you have boisterous children or teenagers who'd love a playmate. Or maybe there's a dog-shaped space in your home that Kenny could help fill. Please contact us or drop in for a visit. Kenny would love to meet you (and we have cake)!

Recently, Dunrunnin was delighted to send representatives to attend the launch of Greenhithe’s newest Co-op. Jake and Mia, along with some two-legged companions, braved the cold wind and drizzle in order to spread the word about our kennels. Don’t worry though – their hard work was rewarded with an extra tin of sardines for dinner. (For the dogs, that is. We did offer sardines to the humans, but they weren’t keen. Humans prefer biscuits.)

We’d like to say a big thank you to the Co-op for their donation of £250, which we’ll be putting towards the resurfacing of our paddocks. We’ll be partnering with this store throughout the year, so if you do find yourself in there, please don’t forget to nominate us as your chosen charity. Thank you!

Do you ever find yourself at a loose end on a Sunday morning? Do you wish for your own dog, even though you know the timing's not quite right? Maybe you feel like you should be getting more exercise, but you just can't bring yourself to join the gym. Or perhaps you just really like free biscuits.

Why not visit us and walk a greyhound or two?

That's exactly what Kath, our newest volunteer, decided to do. She enjoyed her time so much that she brought her whole family along. Now we have a whole clan of greyhound converts!

People have lots of different reasons for becoming dog walkers. Some of the most common are:

Spending quality time with the hounds, doing something they love. We're a small kennel, so you'll soon get to know each of the dogs individually.

For most of our dogs, their walk is the high point of their day. It's impossible not to smile when faced with a happy greyhound that can't wait to see you! And you'll go home knowing you've made a dog's day.

Nature! Fresh air! Exercise! Many of our volunteers find their time in the woods relaxing. At the very least, it's more interesting than the gym!

You'll meet like-minded people and quickly become part of the Dunrunnin team.

Free biscuits.

So, if you ever find yourself with a spare morning, why not come down and see us? There are no complicated application forms, no shifts to sign up for and no minimum commitment. You can show up once a week or once a year. In fact, you don't even need to let us know you're coming!

We want as many people as possible to share the fun with us so we try to be as flexible and welcoming as possible. Our current volunteer force includes working people, retired people, under-18s (with parent/guardian consent), work-experience candidates and Duke of Edinburgh scheme participants. We'd love to include you too!